Thursday, October 1, 2020

When You Least Expected It


The pandemic has affected the livelihood of everyone.

Many workers got laid-off their jobs, some fortunately got assigned to a work-at-home setup, while others dived into product online selling and risking delivering their goods just to survive.

As with most people, our family members were not exempted to what's currently happening.

Our eldest sister gave birth to fraternal twins about four months ago. Of course, my newborn nephew and niece were no doubt a blessing from Yahweh. The challenge for her family now are in financial terms as the kids slowly grow and making them safe from the unseen enemy.

On the other hand, my second elder sister got pregnant around the first quarter of the year. Indeed it was another blessing from Yahweh. Her husband, a seaman, currently cannot go back to working in a cruise ship so he's currently risking his health as a delivery guy.

In my situation, I have been working online for the past decade. The first few years were fruitful and I managed to save during those times but as the years passed by, earnings drastically declined to a point that I'm already using a lot of what I've saved in the past just to make it through day to day.

I have younger twin brothers.

My younger brother works in a health maintenance organization and is fortunate to have his job just switched into a work-from-home setup.

My other younger brother works as a medical encoder. His job was also switched into a work-from-home setup but because of the pandemic, their company laid-off many workers and the renewal of his contract is currently unsure.

With all the uncertainty and financial tightness that's happening in our family these past few months, my connection with Yahweh got deeper and deeper.

As I contemplated on what really matter, I restarted my life into a new beginning. I enjoyed reading the Holy Bible almost everyday and tried my best to do what the Lord says.

Prayer from the heart is what I learned to do, to be sincere and be truthful to what I say to God because I know that He's always listening.

And then one day, my mother received a call when we least expected it. Who was it? What was the call about?

First, a brief history.

Two years before I was born, my mother bought a mango farm somewhere in a province here in the Philippines. It became the home of my grandparents from my mother's side and they lived there for almost two decades.

When my grandparents died, our parents let a caretaker live there as they cannot tend to it because me and my siblings are still young and studying.

A few years later, my father died. My mother then decided that it was time to sell the mango farm as the location is somewhat far from our home in the city and no one among us were interested in living there.

We tried to sell it through our relatives who will act as brokers but they didn't find a buyer for it. Some of our neighbors at the mango farm who are friends of my mother tried to sell it but also cannot find find a buyer.

Over a decade passed by, then came the unexpected call.

Last August, the caretaker of our mango farm called and informed us that her cousin knows someone who is interested in buying the farm.

Me and my mother talked to her cousin who was one of the brokers and after back and forth negotiations with the buyer through the broker, a deal was finally made and settled last September.

Suddenly, all the worries and fears because of the uncertainty and financial instability that's happening to our family was removed by Yahweh.

In the time that we least expected it, the Almighty Lord answered all our prayers in His perfect time.

Thank you very much Yahweh! All glory and honor is to You Almighty Father forever and ever!

May all of us continue to hope with God despite the hardships that come and always pray because God always listens and He will answer it if its according to His will in His precious time.

Saturday, August 8, 2020

Start Restart

During these past few years, I noticed that I have been doing a lot of things and not finishing some if not most of it. I also amassed lots of stuff that I'm not sure if I need it, will be needing it, or not needed at all.

Whether it's organizing digital files, cleaning up my room, doing some minor house repairs, repainting a bathroom, fixing a broken fan, getting my old bike to run again, doing an inventory for my collection, cleaning my home library dust, scanning old cassette tapes for sentimental contents, and many more things. You name it I got those little pebbles.

Sigh... Those little pebbles in my jar seem to occupy a lot of space that I cannot place the important rocks of life in my container.

Apart from work, I also have been working out at home, building strength and endurance, and improving my skills for the Sports that I like but there came those times that I haven't been consistent in these activities.

During this time of trial, with the pandemic and economic breakdown going on, I contemplated and it opened my eyes to what's real and what's not, and what's really needed and what's not.

With those little pebbles that I have inside my jar, it caused a lot of clutter in my life both physically and mentally, and also those pebbles made me procrastinate in the activities that really matter because I got overwhelmed with the amount of those little pebbles that must be done and things that I think I really don't need.

So during these past few days, I have decided to commit into a resolution, a strong and firm resolve.

Clutter that leads to procrastination is what I have decided to face head on. I am currently doing major decluttering both in physical items and in life activities.

It was kind of hard for me at first to determine what's really needed and what's not but slowly but surely with the help of guidance from our Almighty God, my mind cleared up and I think that I have been climbing the stairs of improvement one step at a time.

I know that this will take some time to finish but I will not step back and be overwhelmed again.

Perseverance is the key.

I want to restart my life in a clean slate, and have and do only what really matter. I hope you do so too. So let's start restart!

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Contemplation

A fast-paced lifestyle.

That was the life that most of us lived in until seven months ago when an unseen by the naked eye virus slowly spread across the world.

The first half of the year caught everyone by surprise.

The world suddenly slowed down, people movement slowed down and the economy plunged down.

We're unprepared to what came that the number of affected people grew exponentially. Some died while others recovered.

With no 100% cure yet nor a 100% proven vaccine, suddenly, we're living in a world with an uncertain future.

Small and medium scale entrepreneurs had no choice but to close their businesses. Large corporations are doing mass layoff. A lot of people lost their jobs.

There are mouths to feed, rent and bills to pay, tuition fee, a computer/laptop/tablet that a student needs just to attend online classes as well as a stable internet connection.

Sigh...

Despite what's going on with the world today, time also slowed down in a positive way for each of us.

Suddenly, we have a lot of time to bond with our family. Clean the house with them, prepare and cook food with them, started planting some vegetables at the backyard with them, playing and grooming our pets with them and having a quality siesta time or a coffee with them.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have their day job work be switched into a work from home setup.

So for most of us who lost a steady stream of income in this trying time, the situation breaks us up to what we normally do repeatedly, and suddenly we expanded our creative minds to learn new but simple stuffs in order to cope with the financial deficiency that's happening nowadays.

Another thing that's positively noticeable is how the slow down improved the air quality outdoor, lesser pollution because of lesser cars on the road and lesser operating factories at the moment.

Seven months ago and prior to that, we are so accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle that we became restless citizens of this world. We adopted the mentality that we need to do and have everything in our possession. We need to do this, we need to that, we need to have this, we need to have that to the extent that what we are getting are really clutters of life.

We forgot to slow down. We're feeding the physical body too much. We're slowly neglecting our spirit.

In life, we are born naked. We are born with only our body and soul.

And at the end of our lives, all the material things that we amassed in this world are going to be left here. We cannot bring even a single cent, not even what we are wearing inside the casket.

The first half of the year caught us by surprise but the first half of the year also gave us time to contemplate on what's really important in our lives.

During these trying months, it gave me a very important special time to connect with my spirit, and reconnect and improve my spiritual relationship with the Almighty God.

The time gave me an opportunity to read and understand His Words and to talk to our Lord wholeheartedly.

Despite what's going on with the world and with the uncertainty that it brings, I know that God is with us, He will protect us and He has a good plan for us.

I pray that those who are living in the dark places of their lives see the light of God, wholeheartedly repent from their sinful ways and never again go back in their ways in the dark places.

I also pray that those who don't know the Lord yet in their lifetime, may the light shine upon them and get to know Jesus Christ, because He is the way, the truth and the life.

I pray that in this trying time that our Faith in the Almighty God strengthen more and more, that in everything that we do, our Hope is always with the Lord and our Love for God and with one another always prevail.

May the Almighty God bless us all.